London's Oyster card scheme celebrates 10 year anniversary

Date: 2/7/2013

London's Oyster card system celebrated its ten year anniversary on June 30th, a decade after (TfL) Transport for London launched the scheme in a bid to improve transport throughout the capital.

Since its implementation, TfL says that around 60 million cards have been issued - and that 85 per cent of all rail and bus travel in the city is now paid for using an Oyster.

The programme has benefitted from a number of improvements over the course of the past ten years, and in 2005 daily capping was brought in to ensure customers were not charged more for travelling using the system than they would have been had they bought a standard travelcard.

In 2010 the service was extended to include all commuter and rail services in Greater London, and in 2012 an online facility was launched to increase the ease with which people could keep track of their cards.

Shashi Verma, TfL's Director of Customer Experience, explained that the organisation plans to continue with its efforts to enhance the efficiency of the system and improve the ease with which people can use the scheme.

"We know that our customers love the convenience of Oyster, and we are immensely proud to celebrate its decade serving London," he said.

"We are looking forward to extending the added convenience of contactless payments as an option for our rail customers."

The Oyster programme is considered to be one of the most popular ticketing services in the world, and TfL says that plans to make future upgrades include the extension of contactless debit, credit or charge card payments from buses to the Tube, London Overground DLR and trams.

According to TfL, Oyster cards enable 40 people per minute to pass through ticket barriers - 15 more than is possible with paper tickets - while boarding buses is as much as three times faster than using other methods.

Posted by Mary Treen

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